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Internet freedoms restrained - SOPA/PIPA/OPEN/ACTA/CETA/PrECISE-related updates
IainB:
Huh?
IainB:
More news via Slashdot: RIAA Admits SOPA Wouldn't Have Stopped Piracy
Posted by samzenpus on Monday July 30, @12:32PM
from the lost-cause dept.
jfruh writes "One of the arguments against the now-dormant SOPA legislation was that, in addition to eroding Internet freedom, it would also be ineffective in stopping music piracy. Well, according to a leaked report, the RIAA agrees with the latter argument. The proposed laws would 'not likely to have been an effective tool for music,' according to the report. Another interesting revelation is that, despite the buzz and outrage over P2P sharing, most digital music piracy takes place via sneakernet, with music moving among young people on hard drives and ripped CDs."
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TaoPhoenix:
Yeah I saw that one too, why can't "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" matter OUTSIDE expensive court rooms? What's the deal with blatant lies carrying the day?
IainB:
Yeah I saw that one too, why can't "tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth" matter OUTSIDE expensive court rooms? What's the deal with blatant lies carrying the day?
-TaoPhoenix (July 31, 2012, 01:04 AM)
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Beats me. I don't really understand the nuances between US laws, politics and the apparent tolerance/sanction of what sometimes (to me) looks like unchecked corporate corruption. But then I do not live in the US and am relatively ignorant of the US way of life and its legal system. For example, I still can't understand how the heck the Cyber Security bill can have a gun amendment tucked away inside of it (per the video above). Amazing. :tellme:
Who knows? Maybe it's all part of a cunning psychological/marketing plan that American citizens are being exposed to - to desensitize them preparatory to being walked all over. If so, then is it working? ;)
Moving on, there's what looks like it could be a useful suggestion here from techdirt: Let Your Senator Know Right Now That You Are Watching If They'll Vote To Protect Privacy
(Copied below, sans embedded links, so you will need to go to the linked post to see those and take some action.)
SpoilerLet Your Senator Know Right Now That You Are Watching If They'll Vote To Protect Privacy
from the speak-up dept
On Friday, we mentioned that this week is the week in which the Senate will wrangle over the new Cybersecurity bill. The current bill has some privacy safeguards, but not nearly enough. Senators Al Franken and Rand Paul have put together an amendment to strengthen the privacy safeguards even more -- and over the weekend, Senator Chuck Schumer agreed to co-sponsor the Franken/Paul amendment after talking to various folks in the tech industry and the civil liberties community. That adds more weight to the amendment. Unfortunately, Senators John McCain and Kay Bailey Huchison and a few others, who have been carrying water for the NSA throughout this fight, are looking to move the bill very far in the other direction, wiping out tons of privacy protections. It's really shameful.
Either way, this is the week to let your Senator know how you feel about all of this (and if you're a constituent of McCain or Huchison, please ask why they're so against protecting the privacy of the American public). The American Library Association has kindly set up a simple one-click tool to call your Senator and let them know how you feel.
The EFF has a page with some more info as well, noting that it's basically too late to email your Senators, so please call. If you want some more info, check out Fred Wilson's analysis of the situation, which matches almost exactly with mine. We still have not been given a compelling reason why any such legislation is needed. We keep hearing scare stories about mushroom clouds and planes falling from the sky if information can't be shared. But... what no one has done yet is explain which existing regulations block the necessary sharing of information. If they did that, we could look at fixing those laws. Instead, we're just told scare stories and given a massive 211-page bill that wipes out all sorts of previous laws, and adds all sorts of other things to the law. Given the length of the bill, it's quite likely there are some awful "easter eggs" in there that we'll only discover years down the road.
That said, if the bill is going to pass, it would be much better if it had very strong privacy protections in it, and the Franken/Paul amendment go a long way towards putting such protections in. The McCain/Huchison proposal do the opposite, and basically seek to take away privacy protections, while giving the NSA much more ability to access your data. Don't let the Senate trample your privacy rights. Go ahead and use the ALA's tool to contact your Senator today.
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IainB:
ANother relevant news item from techdirt: Add Argentina To The List Of Countries Looking To Censor The Internet (For The Children, Of Course)
Add Argentina To The List Of Countries Looking To Censor The Internet (For The Children, Of Course)
from the growing-list dept
We've noted that both Russia and China recently pushed for even more internet censorship, and both did so while claiming that it was really to "protect the children." Of course, lots of other countries are following suit. For example, Argentina is now considering a bill that appears to created a blacklist of websites that ISPs must block. Once again, this is done "for the children," as the list is supposed to include sites dealing with child porn. The problem, of course, is that such lists rarely seem to stick to just child porn -- and with little oversight, the over-blocking and over-filtering of legitimate content becomes way too easy. In the meantime, we're still at a loss as to how censorship is a better solution than actually going after those responsible if they're posting illegal content.
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Iran, Russia, China, Argentina, etc. - those countries with historically the sorts of repressive regimes that you would probably expect this of. But I think that Australia and New Zealand - not repressive at all really (or at least, not yet anyway) are in the list too - with the justification for child porn censorship and scanning of your email accounts for same.
Bit by bit, inch by inch.
One of the comments to the above post: (my emphasis)
12. Anonymous Coward, Jul 30th, 2012 @ 11:33pm
none of the countries that are going down this road are doing so for any reasons other than to invade privacy and take away freedoms. they are in the main more like dictatorships than anything but supposed democratic countries like the USA and UK are jumping on the band wagon, whilst condemning those other countries of course. the way things are going, the internet as we know it is going to stop completely, then, as far as ordinary people are concerned, we will only be able to access emails which will be checked first for 'illicit' content and sites that the individual governments allow, the rest of the internet being blocked completely. think back to what started all this censorship and put the blame squarely where it belongs, at the door of the entertainment industries.
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Might have a point there... :huh:
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